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Monday, September 21, 2015

Male Pen Names

Over the centuries, many female writers have adopted male or ambiguous pen names, often to be more accepted by male readers. I'm sure this is nowhere near a comprehensive list, but I do find it fascinating what names they chose for themselves. Some were family names or after other namesakes, but others, who knows? (fun fact: all three Georges listed were writing around the same time)
Some of these are much more well-known today than others, of course, or only used a pseudonym for one or two works (I had no idea Pearl S. Buck used a male name for a few novels. I wonder why?)

  • Acton Bell (Anne Brontë)
  • Alex Kava (Sharon M. Kava)
  • Alex Stuart (Vivian Stuart)
  • Andre Norton (Alice Mary Norton)
  • Anthony Gilbert (Lucy Beatrice Malleson)
  • Charles de Launay (Delphine de Girardin)
  • Charles Egbert Craddock (Mary Noailles Murfree)
  • Christopher Crowfield (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
  • Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë)
  • Daniel Lesueur (Jeanne Lapauze)
  • Daniel Stern (Marie D'Agoult)
  • Dell Shannon (Elizabeth Linington)
  • Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë)
  • Ellis Peters (Edith Pargeter)
  • Ernst Ahlgren (Victoria Benedictsson)
  • Franz von Nemmersdorf (Franziska von Reitzenstein)
  • George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)
  • George Paston (Emily Morse Symonds)
  • George Sand (Amantine-Lucile-Aurore Dupin)
  • Graham R. Tomson (Rosamund Marriott Watson)
  • Henry Handel Richardson (Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson)
  • Holme Lee (Harriet Parr)
  • Idris Seabright (Margaret St. Clair)
  • Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
  • James Tiptree, Jr (Alice Bradley Sheldon)
  • Jean Dominique (Marie Closset)
  • John Sedges (Pearl S. Buck)
  • Laurence Hope (Adela Florence Nicolson)
  • Malachi Whitaker (Marjorie Whitaker)
  • Martin Ross (Violet Florence Martin)
  • Michael Fairless (Margaret Barber)
  • Michael West (Corinne Michelle West)
  • Rhys Bowen (Janet Quin-Harkin)
  • Rohan O'Grady (June O'Grady Skinner)
  • Theunis Krogh (Stella Blakemore)
  • Victor Català (Catalina Albert)
  • Vin Packer (Marijane Meaker)
  • William Stuart Long (also Vivian Stuart)

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